I've just cleaned the shower screen and piston of my LP-8 with soap and water, as I usually do. It looks clean to my eye, but I recently read on an HB forum a comment to the effect that the more expert among us know that Cafiza etc take away coffee deposits that soap and water can't reach. What do the "experts" really say?

Matt

No idea who these so-called "experts" are, but here's my take on this subject:
Specialty coffee cleaners (like Cafiza) are apparently based on trisodium phosphate, which is a different formulation than ordinary dish soap. Not all chemicals are equally effective in removing coffee oils, and the experience of the coffee community supports the use of coffee cleaners. Given the modest cost of Cafiza (a $10 bottle has lasted me years), I see little point in testing this.

If you find that ordinary dish soap works just as well - hey, it's your machine, you can do what you want. But I'm sticking with Cafiza for backflushing etc., until someone provides compelling evidence of something better.

Trisodium Phosphate is found in the paint aisle at the big box store for real cheap, just be sure it is TSP and not something else.

Coffee cleaner ingredients tend to be proprietary formulations. I cannot confirm that the only active ingredient in Cafiza is TSP. Other possibilities include sodium perborate, sodium percarbonate, etc.

I use tri sodium phosphate plus wetting agent and together they work like Cafiza....If i did not have the ingredients already on hand I would buy Cafiza, because as John mentions a little goes a long way...

sodium percarbonate = Oxyclean and other brand names for what is often referred to on the packaging as something like chlorine-free bleach. I just used a strong solution to clean my Hottop and it removed baked on muck inside the stainless outer shell that in some places had been through at least 100 roasts. You have to mix it per use since the H2O2 that is formed dissipates iirc.

mathof wrote:I've just cleaned the shower screen and piston of my LP-8 with soap and water, as I usually do. It looks clean to my eye, but I recently read on an HB forum a comment to the effect that the more expert among us know that Cafiza etc take away coffee deposits that soap and water can't reach. What do the "experts" really say?

Matt

Matt,

For this application it's probably fine. Clean is clean. I've really enjoyed using JoGlo to quickly clean very funky, crudded parts. I recently rebuilt a Bunn grinder and the crud in there was like an archeological dig through coffee coprolites (fossilized sh*t). JoGlo solution dissolved it in 15 minutes.

For removing some kinds of deposits the best cleaner really is 95% grain alcohol (ethanol). One can moisten a small cloth or paper towel with a few millilitres of it. One can also put small parts in a small bowl. Do not use denatured alcohol for this purpose, and do not use any alcohol other than ethanol. Ethanol has high vapour pressure, so it will evaporate very quickly. (The idea is not to make caffè corretto!)

It is a very bad idea to use most other solvents unless you really know what you are doing, and have suitable expertise and facilities.

Are you sure you can buy 95% ethyl alcohol without a permit ?? That's 190 proof booze !!

Everclear found at your local liquor store, 95% or 190 proof. Think of it as dehydrated vodka.